SEC Tournament returns for 22nd consecutive year at Hoover Met

LSU and Arkansas play during the 2017 SEC Baseball Tournament at the Hoover Met. The tournament returns May 21-26 to conclude conference play.

For more than 20 years, baseball fans in central Alabama have had a chance to catch some of the best action college baseball has to offer at the annual Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament, held at the Hoover Met.

The tournament this year will be held May 21-26, with four games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, two games on Friday and Saturday and the championship game on Sunday, May 26, said Herb Vincent, associate commissioner of the SEC.

“We’re excited about having it in Hoover again,” Vincent said.

A few years ago, SEC leaders contemplated moving the tournament to see if they could find a venue that would provide more overall entertainment value for fans beyond the games themselves, but, Vincent said Hoover stepped up with their FanFest, held in the Finley Center.

The FanFest will provide patrons a chance to watch the games on a big TV while they enjoy games, music and other entertainment. Fans from all over the Southeast flock to the Met each year to watch the tournament, Vincent said.

The top twelve teams in terms of conference record in the regular season qualify for the tournament, Vincent said. Teams seeded 5-12 will meet in a single-elimination format on the opening day of the tournament, followed by traditional double-elimination play Wednesday through Friday. The tournament will return to single elimination play on Saturday. Seventeen total games will be played throughout the tournament.

“We think it’s the most exciting tournament in the country,” Vincent said.

The top teams in the Southeastern Conference, as of April 15, were Mississippi State, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Ole Miss.

Alabama, along with Kentucky and South Carolina, has the worst conference record in the league, and Auburn was second to last in the SEC West, as of April 15.